Great minds don't always think alike, and that's a good thing.

Seven years ago this month, I traveled to Ecuador's rainforest to learn about one of the world's largest environmental oil disasters. It was a life-changing trip.

Death stalks each generation in its own way, as activist David Mixner reminded us last week. He movingly recounted assisting the suicides of friends who were suffering through the final stages of AIDS in the 1980s. Testaments like his must be given if the new generation is to have any idea of the price that was paid by those who came before.

This week I was invited to join a media conference call immediately following the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals' favorable ruling in Virginia's Bostic v. Schaefer marriage-equality case.